Icehouse

John and I wanted to visit someplace different with a patio and good food, so we tried Icehouse recently. The patio was very nice with an awning to protect us from the occasional sprinkles coming down during our Friday evening visit and it had a nice view of a little garden area between the building and the adjacent parking lot. We were seated right away. The inside was really empty and the patio was pretty full. Guess it is not a happy hour hot spot, though we enjoyed it a lot.

We started with the buffalo wings. The menu said you could choose dry rub or buffalo, and we went with dry rub. The server came back and said those were not available, the menu was being changed, and did we still want them. We said yes, we would try the buffalo style. The wings were a lot different from last time I tried them, which, granted, was a long time ago. (Stephanie and I visited Icehouse a long time ago.) Previously, they were the drummie only and now you get the full wing. I hate the full wing as it is messy and difficult to eat when the wing pieces are all attached to one another. The sauce was very thick, which made them even messier. The sauce had good flavor and was very spicy, almost too spicy for us. The marinated celery on the side was unusual. It was pickled and that just made the celery soggy rather than crisp and refreshing like fresh celery would have been. Overall, the wings were ok, but not great. I’m not sure we would order them again.

We ordered the French fries with the smoked tomato aioli. The fries were cooked perfectly, very fresh and crisp. The tomato aioli added a nice tart contrast as well. The other dipping sauces to choose form included harissa, spicy ketchup and fondue.

The last item we tried was the beef empanadas with chimichurri, citrus mojo and broiled provolone. I really liked the sauces under them empanadas as it gave them some additional flavor since they were pretty bland plain. I liked the one with cheese underneath, although John thought it was too salty. The chimichurri one was probably the best as it had a lot of flavor from the tomatoes.

We both had a version of a dark and stormy called “The Man With the Forked Beard,” which was very good as they use house made ginger beer. The drink menu had a lot of other interesting selections and the sipping shots were intriguing, but I did not get a chance to try any this time.

The service was fine, though I noticed it was a bit uneven in some regards. The server came and told us the wings would be prepared differently than we ordered them and he came to tell us, but he never told the table behind us, so they were surprised to get buffalo wings rather than dry rubbed wings. The server also brought hot towels to a table across from us that ordered the wings, but we never received any hot towels and we certainly could have used them.


Deals and discounts: Happy hour runs from 4-6pm Monday through Friday and includes $2 off house wine, drafts and rails. There is also a late night happy hour from 10pm to 12am.


Icehouse
2528 Nicollet Ave
Minneapolis, MN 55404
(612) 276-6523
www.icehousempls.com/